Friday, September 25, 2015

Dear Baker Family,

 I wish to take this opportunity to inform you that Elder Baker has been assigned to serve as a District Leader in the Peru Lima Central Mission.  He has distinguished himself as an outstanding teacher and as a diligent worker.  He is a great example to his fellow missionaries and has gained their love and respect.   His worthiness and leadership abilities are a tribute to himself and his family.

 Elder Baker will lead a district which will consist of four to eight missionaries.  He will have the stewardship of administering to the spiritual as well as the temporal needs of his missionaries.  He will meet with these missionaries on a weekly basis to train, uplift and edify them.   As he serves, he will gain valuable experiences which will assist him in the future as a husband and father, and in leadership callings in the Church.

 I appreciate your continuing support of him as he serves his Father in Heaven here in the Perú Lima Central Mission.  We pray that you, with him, will “lift up your heart and rejoice,” for the hour of this important phase of his mission has come (see D&C 31:3).

 Warmest regards,

 Stephen J. Larson

Presidente

Misión Perú Lima Central

Monday, September 21, 2015

So this week was good.  One cool story...  To start off.  There is a lady that works in our sector but doesn't live there.  She lives about 2 hours outside of the mission.  Anyway, we have taught her and she liked the message but she always said that the church was not where she lives in jicamarca.  And she said that there are not missionaries.  Anyways, this lady had a big problem that happened where someone went to take a car to their lot (they rent out a little lot they have so people can put their cars in there) and someone brought a car that was robbed but the owners, our investigator, didn't know that.  So they stored it but the police came and took her husband to jail.  So we talked to her and were trying to help her and she said that she really felt our spirit and she wants to learn more and she took the Book of Mormon to her husband and he is reading it.  Ok, so we had an intercambio and I was kind of questioning it because we had already had an intercambio and there wasn't really a reason for it.  So just about the whole entire day nothing happened.  I was still questioning the reason why I was in the other sector.  But then in the very last hour of the day this mother and her daughter stopped us and said that they were members in JICAMARCA.  My mouth completely dropped.  I could not believe it.  So from them I was able to get the direction of the church over there and the number of the missionaries and now they are going to go and visit her.  So The Lord answered my question that night about WHY I was in the sector Las Flores all day long for "no reason at all".  Haha I immediately just thought.  Sorry.  Shouldn't doubt.  So my testimony grew this week that the Lord puts us in the place we need to be and the time we need to be there.  

That was one story this week.  Another story is from the intercambio also.  When my comp and the other Elder were going to the sector I was in to change again they got in a little mototaxi and the guy in the mototaxi started talking to them and he got interested in the message and said he wants us to go to his house to visit him.  Anyways, turns out his mom, was a lady we already knew!  One of our investigators and this guy is married and has 4 kids!  Seriously it was such a miracle.  I dont think I will ever doubt ever again the reason for an intercambio.  

One more exciting thing is that Samantha, our recent convert, had an interview with the bishop on Thursday.  She had the interview and we are going to the temple with her on Thursday.  Honestly it is such a good feeling when a convert goes to the temple and you can see their progress.  They always tell us here in the mission that we should start with the end in mind.  Or that we should imagine our investigators in the temple.  We imagine them in the white clothes of baptism and in the white clothes of the temple.  I also like to throw one more thing in there....  The white clothes in heaven.  It is nice knowing that the people I am teaching can grow to have a testimony and serve in the temple for the rest of their lives to be able to become perfeccionados.  Don't know how you say that in English so look it up on google translate haha.  

Also, I might have a change.  We have changes tomorrow and they are going to tell us tonight if we have changes or not so I will find out later if I will continue in Zarate or no.  but just like I learned this week -  A donde me mandes, ire.  (Translated by Mr. Google:  Where you send me, I will go.)  

Monday, September 14, 2015

Ok, so this week was great we had one baptism!  Samantha.  It was cool because her son baptized her who just got back from his mission!  The spirit was so strong during the baptismal service.  We were scheduled to have the baptism at 5.  The bishop told us at 3:30 it would be sufficient to fill up the font so we went and it was not sufficient.  They had recently changed the font and put new tubing in or something and so we went there with an hermano and he didn't really know how to work it.  All my baptisms in this sector have been in the stake center but this was in our ward so I didn't know how to work this font either.  But luckily la hora peruana (basically Mormon standard time in Peru) exists here because just about everyone came late so we had time to fill up the font.  If they hadn't come late we would have been done for.  But it all worked out ok and the spriit was strong so it was all good.  

Also, this past week we had a training with President Larson.  It was awesome, we were there just about all day.  It was a good experience though.  And I think it was Hermana Larson who made chocolate chip cookies and WOW, that was heavenly.  I had not tasted a chocolate chip cookie in about 15 months so that was incredible.  That was awesome.  It was a good meeting.  We met with the president and we had hours of training and practices so it was a full day and tiring day but it was good.  

I love you all.  I hope that you have a great week.  You are my favorite family in the whole world!  

Have a great week! 

Monday, September 7, 2015

Happy September to everyone.  This past week was awesome and to find out that BYU won it got even better!  On Saturday night, the secretary of the mission called us and said that he was just informed that BYU had won the game on a hail mary pass in the last second.  So I found out just about right after it happened haha.  I thought he was going to tell me something important but nope haha, just that BYU had won the game.  Well, that is important, but important mission-wise.  

First story, ok so this week we had a list of people that we really just wanted to focus on.  One of them is  _____ .  So she is going to get baptized this Saturday.  I don't remember if I told you all about her last week but her papers were lost and she went less active.  But her son got back from a missin and she now wants to get baptized!  So that is pretty cool for us.  We were focusing on her and her sister-in-law is a member also, but her daughter no.  And her sister-in-law came up to us on Sunday and said, "Elders, I want you to baptize my daughter."  So we obviously replied that we were happy to do that haha.  So this saturday it looks like we are going to have two baptisms!  

Also, this week, we are going to possibly have 5 reactivations.  That is when someone is less active, but then we find them, they start going to church and then we teach them all the lessons and they have an interview with the bishop.  This week we are possibly going to have 5 of those!  So hopefully that all goes well.  

On Wednesday we had a nice surprise.  Well, Tuesday night.  The zone leaders called on Tuesday night and said that we were going to go to the temple the next day.  So it was kind of a bummer because we had to cancel all of our appointments but it was cool because we got to go to the temple!  It was so nice to be able to go to the temple.  Seriously every single time we go in it is so peaceful.  I love it.  Because once again, Lima is so busy and there is no silence ever so when we have the opportunity to go to the temple it is incredible.  I always think of the primary song I love to see the temple.  Because here you are in a bus on a road and BAM the temple just kind of pops up out of nowhere.  

That is about it from this week.   I hope that you all have a wonderful week and that all goes well.  I love you!